Sheer Cold
by Joey Taylor
Summary: Sister fic to Sacred Fire. Battle City may be over but trouble is just around the corner for Yugi and the gang as souls are put at risk, refugees from the Pokeworld gather in Domino, and Mars' team of Elemental Trainers hunt for Dialga.
1. A New Trainer

It had been exactly two weeks since Joey had been hurt protecting Yugi from Marik's attempt to kill him, and the tricolour-haired boy was covering his friend's shifts at the Day Care Centre.

It probably wouldn't have taken Joey that long to recover had they not been attacked on their way to hospital from the Battle City Finals, dragging him into both a duel and a Pokémon Battle with a Team Galactic Administrator.

It wasn't like Yugi minded. It was the least he could do after Joey had saved his life twice in the space of forty-eight hours. While Joey hadn't asked Yugi to do this for him, after the Death Duel and Marik's murder attempt someone needed to cover Joey's hours at the Day Care Centre. If Yugi hadn't volunteered to do it for free while Joey was on sick leave they would have hired someone to replace his friend.

He was just tired. He hadn't realised quite how many hours Joey took after school until he'd agreed to work them all and he had a new appreciation for the lack of time Joey had to do anything with the group outside of school. There was no way he could have done it if Tristan and Tea hadn't agreed to fill in for him at the game shop. As it was he often had to rush his homework or do it on his break.

He would get used to it eventually; at least that was what his colleagues were saying. It would apparently take him a couple of weeks to get used to the schedule he was putting himself through, then he'd stop feeling as tired. If anything they were impressed that he was managing to keep up with everything considering the complaints they often heard from Joey about his ability to do the exact same thing.

Yugi had an unfair advantage there though. He had Yami to keep him on the ball, in fact the Pharaoh had done his homework for him (badly, admittedly, but it had been done) three times over the last fortnight, got him into school on time twice and bailed him out when someone had tried to jump him on the way home from work. Yugi didn't like to ask about what had happened to that guy and Yami wasn't telling, but from the way Yami had been acting smug the entire following day, Yugi could guess that the attacker wouldn't be doing it again in a hurry.

And there was a plus side to working at the Day Care. He finally had access to the Centre's internal Pokedex and he was in on the beta testing of the PDAs that would work as the employee's Pokedexes, giving them immediate access to all the information in the Centre's extensive database just by scanning the Pokémon in question.

They didn't work particularly well yet - in fact they were going to have them back in again for adjustments to the camera and a new set of programming - but they worked well enough for Yugi to start catching up on all the things he'd missed the first time around when Jamie had been teaching Joey all the things she thought he'd need, and the devices gave the others a chance to pull their acts together.

The problem when Yugi had first started here had been that everyone had rather relied on Jamie, and later Joey, for the important information. Jamie had tried offering the same classes she was giving Joey to the other staff members, but no one had taken her up on it and was now regretting it as everyone scrambled to find someone who was able to handle the Pokémon competently.

Luckily that had come in the form of a pair of Trainers from the Pokémon World or, as it was beginning to become known by those in the know, the Pokeworld, Both of them favoured Electric type Pokémon. They were Chi Risha of Oldale Town, and Robert Langley of Canalave City.

They didn't have Jamie's background as their parents hadn't worked with Pokémon Researchers, but they had more than enough knowledge about Pokémon between them to keep everything running smoothly and were more than willing to help the other staff members catch up.

Yugi did have one advantage, it seemed. A bored Haunter had 'kidnapped' him one evening, demonstrating that the ghost Pokémon could interact with human spirits. While Yami was convinced that it was all Bakura's fault, it had proved that a ghost with an even infrequent playmate caused less trouble in general.

Of course the problem with working with the Pokémon was…

"You're not supposed to be here." A newly-awakened Yugi grouched at the Persian who for the fourth morning in a row was laid across his legs. She (Langley said it was a she) took up a considerable amount of space on his bed. The rather large, beige furred cat stared at him for a moment before leaping down to allow him to get up and feed her.

Yugi had learnt though, and before he even moved from his spot on the bed he put the Millennium Puzzle on. He'd played 'chase the Puzzle stealing Persian around the flat' two days in a row and was not – for a change - a big fan of the game.

He was beginning to wonder if he should just accept the inevitable and requisition Persian's Pokeball from the Day Care Centre. They'd pretty much just assumed that it was going to come and live with him now anyway; he might as well accept the fact…

"Yugi!" The King of Games cringed at his Grandfather's tone, wondering how Persian had gotten in this time. The first night it had been because Yugi had left the window open, the second it had managed to, somehow, and Yugi wasn't sure how considering how big it was, hide itself in the flat, probably under his bed or in the airing cupboard, the third night it had been in the flat when he'd gotten home and last night he could have sworn that the Persian had been in the Day Care when it had been locked and it most definitely hadn't been in the flat when the store had been shut last night.

Yugi worked out what the problem might have been when he tripped over a red furred, six tailed fox, who gave him a hurt look and barked at him. "Vulpix!"

"Oh great, two of you." Yugi groaned, wondering if any of the other Pokémon from the Day Care Centre had followed him home. These two were the ones who had taken to following him around when he was covering Joey's shifts, but he was convinced that if he'd let the ghosts come home with him they would. Not that they needed his permission to do anything. "How did you get in?" He asked the Vulpix, who just gave him an innocent look and bounded down the stairs ahead of him.

"Good morning, Grandpa." Yugi offered as he reached the bottom of the stairs. "I'm guessing that you found out how Persian and Vulpix got in last night."

"The back door was unlocked."

"But I locked it…" Yugi frowned; confused for a moment before deciding that he needed to have a word with the ghost Pokémon, since it had to be them or the psychic types that kept letting the other Pokémon in and he couldn't let it continue. He was just lucky that he was one of the few that they would listen to. They couldn't keep letting the other Pokémon into the flat. What if someone got into the flat because the back door had been unlocked?

"This isn't safe, Yugi." Solomon scowled, "If you're going to keep bringing Pokémon home, I want you to adopt them officially and bring them home on the evening so they don't have to break into the flat every night."

Yugi just nodded, having been wondering how to approach the subject with his Grandfather for the last couple of days. "I'll get the paperwork started when I get into work." He was just glad it was a Sunday. It meant that he had an eight hour shift at the Day Care but he'd have plenty of time to get the paperwork started and get the two Pokémon in question assigned to him. "I'm not sure how long the process will take and they might send someone round to look at the flat."

His Grandfather nodded. Yugi had explained the adoption process that Kaiba Corp had set in place back when he'd been trying to memorise everything he'd learnt in his induction. "Just make sure you tell them to ring ahead. The store has a mini tournament today and I don't want Kaiba's goons scaring off my customers."

"Mokuba's in charge of the Pokémon side of Kaiba Corp." Yugi defended the boy who had agreed him taking on Joey's hours with no complaints or conditions. "Not Seto."

"He uses the same thugs, Yugi." Solomon admonished, well aware of his Grandson's ability to see the good in everyone but not as willing to trust the Kaiba brothers as Yugi was.

"Don't worry, I'll try and make sure Chi or Rob phone ahead."

"They send the Trainers out on the adoption checks?" Solomon asked, surprised, as he followed Yugi into the kitchen, starting breakfast cooking as Yugi boiled some water for tea.

Yugi, who was reaching into one of the cupboards, reminding himself to remind Tristan that while he and Tea could reach the higher shelves, neither of the Mutous could unless they used a step stool, glanced over his shoulder at his grandfather, "Only the Trainers know everything a Pokémon needs, well them and Joey. The rest of us are still learning everything in the Pokedex. Jamie used to go out on all the adoptions, but now the staff members split it depending on knowledge and experience."

Yugi poured the tea and offered a mug to his Grandfather before sipping his own drink, "Just don't forget you promised a duel to the winner of the store tournament." Solomon sighed.

Yugi just nodded, trying not to let his grandpa see how much it bothered him when he was used as free publicity for the shop. He could understand why his Grandpa did it, it didn't mean Yugi liked it, especially when the promise of a duel with the King of Games drew in people who weren't regulars and threw temper tantrums, in Joey's words, when they lost to some of the kids who shopped at the store regularly.

Nor did it help in slightest that doing so had released his address to the duelling press. It had been bad enough when he'd had challengers turning up at school. Now he had them at home too.

That was one of the things he liked about working at the Day Care. Everyone there knew his title, but barely anyone cared. There was just too much going on and too much work to do to worry about it. That and the last time a bunch of Duelists had tried to badger him in the Day Care, he'd been in the middle of feeding the Pokémon and Denkou, Jamie's Raichu, hadn't appreciated having to wait for her food.

Apparently Duel Disks malfunctioned if introduced to a Thunderbolt attack.

Solomon dished out the breakfast as Yugi fed the two Pokémon that had followed him home, watching his Grandson interact with the huge feline and the small red kitsune. Solomon had half expected to end up with Pokémon living in the flat, though it had been more to do with the fact that Joey seemed to be assembling his own team, then Yugi was enamoured with the Pokémon.

In fact before Battle City the only Pokémon Yugi had been overly interested in had been Joey's Dragonair and Jamie's squad. Now he seemed as taken with the creatures as Joey was. "Just one thing," Solomon said, causing Yugi to glance over at him, before turning back to the Persian who was demanding that Yugi hand over the tin of tuna with a rather loud meow, "If another canine Pokémon comes up, could you try and get it?"

Yugi frowned momentarily, realised his Grandfather missed having a Mightyena to stand guard over the shop, then gave him a bright smile, already trying to work out if there were any Pokémon who could do guard duty at the centre at the moment, and Shade didn't' count, since he, along with the rest of Jamie's squad, bar Iblis, who stayed with Joey, and Aisu, who was travelling with Jamie, were assigned to guarding the Day Care. "I will."

**LINE_RECOGNITION_HAS_GONE_AGAIN**

"Yugi," Yugi, who was curled up on the sofa in the staff lounge, doing homework on his lunch break, looked up from his book report for English the moment he heard Mokuba's voice, concern obvious, "Can I have a word?"

"Sure." Yugi quickly moved his feet off the sofa, shuffled his books around and moved his lunch to one side so he could put his homework down, as Mokuba sat down opposite him. "Is there something wrong?"

"No, no." Mokuba shook his head a little too quickly, informing Yugi that something was up, but the Vice-CEO of Kaiba Corp didn't want to tell him about it, "I was just returning your copies of the adoption forms for Bast the Persian and Okibi the Vulpix."

Yugi, who had only put in the forms this morning and was surprised by this quick turnover, took the forms from Mokuba with a grin, "That was fast."

Mokuba shrugged, "It's not like we have to check the game shop's suitable. If it can take Jamie's squad, Shade and Aisu, Bast and Okibi won't have any problems living there. And I know you, Yugi, you're not exactly going to mistreat them." Mokuba smirked at him, "Besides, from what I hear Bast's practically adopted you anyway. If I didn't sign off on the adoption I might have found your Persian shredding my furniture, since she can apparently walk through walls."

Yugi, who could sense Yami's irritation over the matter of the cat like Pokémon, just chuckled lightly, assuming, half correctly, that Mokuba had been informed of the problem by other members of staff. What Yugi wasn't aware of was that after Battle City, the Kaiba brothers had made sure that there was someone hanging around Yugi at all times who could report in if he got into any Marik-esque trouble again.

When Mokuba didn't say anything, Yugi grew concerned. It wasn't like Mokuba to come down to hand over paperwork personally and, though the other boy was trying to hide it, his concern over something was blatantly obvious. "What's happened?" Yugi asked softly.

Mokuba looked up, surprised, about to deny it when he realised who he was speaking to and let out a soft sigh. "It's Seto."

"Is he alright?" Yugi asked, trying not to notice the way that both concern and interest had spiked across the link from his other self for just a moment before the Pharaoh had schooled his emotions. He shook his head mentally at Yami's instant interest if there was a possibility to wind up Kaiba with it later.

"I don't know. He's been acting really weird since Battle City. I mean he's finally started working on our plans again, and he's building it right this time, but there's something strange going on. He barely ever lets me in his office, he's forever sending out runners to odd places with odd packages and I've had reports that he's been down to the furnaces three times in the last week."

Yugi blinked, completely confused and unsure what to say.

'_Maybe Kaiba's losing it.'_ Yami piped up helpfully.

"I'm sure he's ok." Yugi tried to reassure Mokuba, "He's probably just been distracted with some project and lost track of where he's going."

Mokuba thought it over, gesturing for Yugi to continue his lunch when he caught the teen glancing at the clock. It was a logical explanation, he supposed, but only if you didn't take into account the sheer volume of times that Seto had been lost in a project before and hadn't acted this way.

"If something _**is**_ wrong, can I…?" Mokuba finally asked hesitantly, not really wanting to ask if he could come to Yugi and the others. He knew full well that no matter how bad it looked, they'd pull out the stops to help them, they had before. In fact Mokuba was all too aware that, no matter how much Seto may have aggravated and insulted the pair in front of him, the Yugis would still take huge risks to help them. After all had or had not Yugi put his own soul on the line to save those of his grandfather, Seto and Mokuba?

"If you need help, feel free to come see me. I'll help in any way I can." Yugi promised.

"Thanks." Mokuba stood up, feeling a little relieved. "Oh…" He paused, "No, its fine, we can discuss it once Joey's back in work."

"Hmm?" Yugi asked, tilting his head slightly, curiosity showing.

Mokuba considered the time, then nodded and sat back down again, "I'd like to take this opportunity to discuss a proper working contract with you."

Yugi blinked again, causing Mokuba to wonder if Seto had ever managed to confuse Yugi twice in the space of ten minutes. "I thought we'd made an agreement? I'll cover Joey's hours and you cover his hospital bills." Yugi said slowly, wondering where Mokuba was going with this.

"That was the agreement, yes," Mokuba nodded. The problem was that with the amount of hours Yugi was covering the medical bills were significantly less than what Joey would have been paid. That, and that though Mokuba knew that Yugi was doing this to help Joey as much as the Day Care he was also completely aware of how much Yugi was putting himself out to aid Kaiba Corp. Mokuba knew full damn well that Yugi would never ask for anything in return.

If it had been anyone else, Mokuba wouldn't have felt so guilty about fleecing them, but it was Yugi and he deserved better then that after everything he had done for the Kaiba brothers.

That and Mokuba had full knowledge of how tight money was for the Mutous, not that Yugi would ever complain about such a thing. Small shops didn't make much money after all, no matter how popular they were and most could barely cover their rent, bills and products. "However I'm willing to offer you a contract that would mean that you would have a job here after Joey gets back and you'll make some pocket money."

'_We don't need his help.'_ Yami grouched.

"_No, but we do need to hear him out." _Yugi replied, a little exasperated,_ "A part time job here would give Bast and Okibi a chance to interact with other Pokémon in a slightly more natural environment."_

'_You call the Day Care natural?'_ Yami snorted.

"_More natural than inside a house. At least the Day Care's designed to look like something they'd have back in their world."_

'_True.'_ Yami acknowledged. _'Of course if you don't have the cat…'_

"_I'm keeping the Persian."_ Yugi half-scolded, well aware that Bast didn't like Yami much for some strange reason and Yami barely tolerated Bast. "Go on."

"Starting as of this week, you'll be on a twelve hour week, which is the standard contact for students." Mokuba explained when Yugi gestured for him to do so, "And that's on Y4000 an hour, same as everyone else who works here. Once Joey comes back to work, anything you do over the twelve hours will be counted as overtime and you'll get paid for that too."

"What about Joey?" Yugi asked, tempted by the idea of those sorts of wages, which, if he was working it out right would come to just under two million yen a year, but not if it impacted Joey at all.

"What about him?" Mokuba asked, "We'll continue to pay his hospital fees and once he's out of hospital we'll continue to pay his sick leave until he returns, at which point he'll come back onto his normal hours and contract, including all the obscene amounts of overtime if he wants it."

Yugi nodded, smiling. "Which days would you need me?"

"Evenings only. I've seen the reports about you and the ghost Pokémon." Mokuba explained, "Six till nine on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday evenings."

Yugi nodded, it sounded reasonable and he could help his Grandfather at the Game Shop on the afternoon on the other weekdays and help till closing on the weekends. "Sounds good, but may I phone my Grandpa and check that it's alright?"

Mokuba nodded and stood, having figured that Yugi would need to check in with his Grandpa before signing anything considering that Yugi worked as almost free labour at the Kame Game Shop and any hours Yugi took at the Day Care would impact how much he could work at the store. "In fact, I'll come back on Wednesday and if the contract is viable, I'll back date the pay for this week."

Yugi smiled at him, "Alright. See you then Mokuba. And thanks."

Mokuba just smiled at him, feeling less of a toad, and left.

**LINE_RECOGNITION_HAS_GONE_AGAIN**

Having finished work fifteen minutes ago Yugi, carrying Bast and Okibi's Pokeballs in his back pocket, was heading for the bus stop. He was planning on taking a detour to visit Joey in hospital and fill him in on what was going on at work. His friend, who was by now a notoriously bad patient seemed to be more willing to listen to the Doctors if he knew everything was going alright.

'_Yugi!'_ Yami snapped at him over the link, startling him out of his thoughts.

Yugi knew that tone of voice and he glanced around, hesitating only because he wasn't sure whether he would need his deck or his Pokeballs. Instead of deciding, Yugi let Yami slip into control and took the passenger seat as Yami darted down an alleyway to escape the limo that had been following them for the last couple of blocks. _'If this is some plan of Kaiba's…'_ Yami let the threat hang.

Taking spirit form, Yugi darted down the alleyway to check that the way was safe, only to find a second limo coming down the road. _"But why would Kaiba be hunting us? He hasn't had us kidnapped in years."_

'_I don't know.'_ Yami growled, wondering if this had something to do with what Mokuba had been worried about earlier. If there was one bonus, it was that it wasn't Team Galactic that was following them, unless the group from Jamie's world had somehow managed to buy or steal a bunch of limos, which Yami greatly doubted. _'But…'_ Yami trailed off and Yugi retreated to his body as a group of guys entered the alleyway. "Can I help you?" Yami asked, backing up slowly, glancing over his shoulder and noting that a second group were coming up behind him.

"You need to come with us." The leader said. Yami recognised him from the security detail upon the blimp.

"If Kaiba wants me to go anywhere, he can phone and ask like any other civilised person." Yami snorted, wondering if he could Shadow Game all of the goons at once, at least until several of them pulled guns on him.

Not that he hadn't faced down a gun before. There was one game that stuck in his mind, though he hadn't shared the memory with Yugi, where a convict had pulled a gun and threatened both himself and Tea. Yami had managed to convince him to play a game and had gotten the guy to set himself on fire.

Somehow he didn't think that would work here.

"I'm sorry, sir, but I must insist."

"_Uhh Yami. I don't think we have much of a choice here."_

Yami was loath to agree, but he backed down. There was a plus side to it being Kaiba. He wouldn't be after the Millennium Puzzle, there wouldn't be anything to do with magic and the worst case scenario Yami could come up with was that Kaiba had suddenly decided it had been too long between their last duel (because two weeks was such a long time) and decided that instead of giving Yugi any notice, he wanted to duel now.

As long as Kaiba hadn't regressed to pre Mind Crush, in which case the worst case scenario would be Death T round 2, which, though he'd beat it, would be less than fun.

"Alright." Yami nodded, letting his hands fall to his sides, playing the innocent, harmless role, not wanting to get Yugi injured.

That was a mistake. Before he could move towards the leader's group, one of the guys behind him wrapped one arm around his throat, twisted his right arm behind his back and, when Yami attempted to free himself, twisted the aforementioned arm so far up his back that Yami let out a yelp of pain and stopped struggling for fear it would break.

That wasn't the worst of it though. The guy holding him captive lifted him up by the throat, the arm tightening enough to stop him from falling through and enough to make him start struggling again as his air supply cut off, at least for a few seconds before he was dropped unceremoniously and shoved into the car, landing face down on the back seat.

Before he could right himself, someone had climbed into the car, pinned him down by putting one knee heavily on his back, crushing Yugi's tiny frame with his weight, making it difficult for Yami to breathe, and seized his wrists, trapping them behind his back.

"Let me go." Yami managed to get enough breath to snarl as he squirmed, fuming at being trapped like this, his anger only intensifying at the fact he could sense Yugi's fear.

They pulled into the Kaiba Corp car park five minutes later, by which point Yami was feeling incredibly dizzy, and by the time the Pharaoh had managed to shake himself free of the disorientation he'd been dragged out of the car and locked in pitch black room on the basement floor.

'_I am going to kill Kaiba.'_ Yami snarled over the link as he first attempted to find a light switch, then, when that failed, attempted to break the door down.

For once Yugi didn't disagree with him. The hikari, who was slowly calming down, wasn't sure what was going on. As far as he was aware he hadn't done anything to Kaiba to incite this kind of treatment.

Yami took a step back from the door, considering his options when it became obvious that his weight wouldn't be enough to move the door, and tripped over a bucket, creating the most horrendous noise as he knocked everything over on his way down, informing the pair of them that this was, in fact, a rather large broom closet.

"Right. That's it." Yami snarled and drew the top card from his deck without even being able to see what it was. He summoned the monster on it, only to call forth the Dark Magician. The bright flash of magic from the Puzzle blinded him temporarily but did not prevent him from ordering the spellcaster to blow down the door.

The purple robed sorcerer did just that, allowing light to flow through the door, and proceeded to precede the Pharaoh who was blinking away the sun spots from the sudden influx of light, threatening the boy on the other side.

"Uhh, Yugi, can you call off your Dark Magician please?" Mokuba asked nervously as a furious Yami stepped out of the broom closet.

"What the hell is your brother playing at?" Yami snarled, causing the black haired Kaiba brother to back off.

"It's not his fault this time." Mokuba protested, having thought that Seto had already fired all the 'security' staff from the pre-Death T era of Kaiba Corp and trying to protect his brother from what was swiftly becoming obvious would be a slow and painful death, "I was there when he sent them out. He asked them to collect you, not kidnap you."

"They locked me in a broom closet." Yami let out a low growl, dismissing the Dark Magician as he did so.

Mokuba, very wisely not making a reference to the Other Yugi being in the closet, just nodded, "I know. Seto sent me down to let you out while he makes his displeasure known. Trust me, if they still have their jobs at the end of the day it'll be a miracle."

Yami snorted, still unconvinced of Kaiba Seto's complete innocence in the matter, but followed Mokuba, knowing that Mokuba wouldn't let anything happen to Yugi because he still needed him to cover all of Joey's shifts. Besides, without the guns Yami could take Kaiba easily. He had before and he would again.

Mokuba led Yami up to Seto's office where the CEO was waiting semi patiently, and once the door was shut, Seto stood up and turned to face the, blatantly pissed off, Pharaoh but didn't get a chance to say anything before the Other Yugi opened his mouth.

"What the hell do you want, Kaiba?" Yami glowered at the CEO. "How dare you…?"

"Stow it Mutou." Kaiba interrupted, snarling back, having expected to end up talking with this Yugi, considering the methods used to get the teen into Kaiba Corp, but needing a face to face talk with his rival and he hadn't seen any other way of getting Yugi to come here without sending out sensitive information. "I need to speak with you."

"I would have come if you had had the courtesy to call, Kaiba." Yami growled, "There was no need to kidnap me."

"It was urgent."

"Urgent enough you couldn't pick up the phone?" Yami didn't like many modern conveniences, he had difficulty understanding their controls, but he did appreciate the thing called the telephone, which allowed for conversation between long distances.

"I couldn't talk about it over the phone." Kaiba retorted, "My line is secure, yours is not and I would not be happy if this got out."

Curiosity warred with anger. "Go on." The Pharaoh gestured, wanting to hear more, even as he was still pissed off that Kaiba thought he could grab his hikari off the street at any moment he wished.

"The Millennium Items." Kaiba saw he had managed to surprise his rival, just by saying those words. "What are they?"

Of all the things Yami had expected when Yugi had been kidnapped, this had not been on his list, at least not after he'd realised that it had been Kaiba's goons doing the kidnapping. "I thought you didn't believe in magic." Yami replied cautiously, probing for more information before he gave what little he knew up.

"I would be a fool not to by now." Kaiba snorted back, "After the events of Duellist Kingdom and Battle City."

"Then why were you…?"

"You answer my questions; I'll answer yours. Unless I deem them inappropriate." Kaiba interrupted the teenager with a sneer. Yami's ruby eyes flashed with irritation. The CEO gestured to the chair on the opposite side of the desk.

"Only if I get the same courtesy." Yami retorted, then sat down. He recognised that for now at least Kaiba had the upper hand. The Pharaoh was unwilling to give the CEO more information then was necessary, no matter the situation. "Why do you need to know? You haven't been interested up to this point, and I've known you what… three years?"

"Going on four." Kaiba acknowledged, "Let's just say that recently my interest has become personal." Kaiba watched as the Other Yugi's hand instantly moved to hold his Puzzle, a movement that was probably more subconscious than anything else.

"Personal?" Yami glanced towards the door, "Mokuba?" He asked, sensing Yugi's concern for the younger Kaiba brother. "How would he get a hold of a Millennium Item? I was under the impression that I'm the only one who holds any in the area, bar Bakura of course."

'_Right reason, wrong Kaiba brother.'_ Kaiba thought, "In your concern over the Mutt's health, you left the Millennium Rod unattended. It was recovered before the island exploded, but it appears to have latched onto the one who picked it up and is refusing to leave."

"Refusing to leave?" The Other Yugi was confused again. Kaiba had managed that more in the last ten minutes then he had over the last four years.

"Do I hear an echo?" Kaiba asked, "Yes, refusing to leave. As in it gets removed from the premises, it returns, it gets locked in a vault, it's back on the desk by the time the person returns."

That explained the strange runners and trips to the furnace then…

"The only way for control of a Millennium Item to shift is for the current owner to lose a duel for control, or for the aforementioned owner to die. Since Marik was killed in that helicopter crash, I assume that the Millennium Rod picked the next person to touch it as its next owner." Yami gave Kaiba an amused look, "I'm assuming that was you."

"That's why Marik tried to kill you during Battle City?" Kaiba had wondered how long it would take Yugi's much more arrogant self to work it out and he just nodded in response to Yami's assumption,

"He wanted my Puzzle. I wasn't willing to give it up. He couldn't beat me fairly, so he tried underhanded tactics." Yami nodded.

"And you nearly sacrificed yourself to stop him." Kaiba nodded.

"I wasn't fighting to protect the Puzzle then, I was fighting to save Joey." Yami snorted, suppressing a bitter laugh. He remembered how close Yugi had come to dying… '_If it hadn't been for Joey…_' Yami shook his head almost imperceptibly, trying to shake off the memories. Anyone else would have missed it, but not Kaiba who, thankfully, didn't say a word. "Why did you pick it up?" The Pharaoh couldn't resist asking, "And what are you going to do with it?"

"Someone had to remove it from the Duelling Platform." Kaiba snorted. "And I wasn't about to let Mokuba play with the damn thing."

Yami nodded, understanding, "And you didn't mention that you'd found the Millennium Rod two weeks ago? We assumed it was lost when your island exploded."

"Because I wanted nothing to do with the damn thing and you don't need any more ancient magic following you around like a little lost sheep."

Yugi's mental image of Yami being followed around by a pack of Millennium Items did not help his composure one bit. _'Yugi, please, I'm trying to have a sane conversation with Kaiba for a change.'_ Yami sent down the link.

"_Us? Sane conversation with Kaiba that doesn't involve Duel Monsters?" _Yugi asked, still sensing irritation from Yami and hoping that Kaiba wouldn't push Yami any further then he already had today,_ "He's probably decided he's finally gone crazy, you realise this?"_

"So what do you want me to do?" Yami asked of the CEO who was watching him carefully, as if expecting a comment, unaware of the conversation that had gone on inside Yugi's head. "If you want me to take it off your hands, we're going to have to Duel."

Kaiba's pride was piqued when the Other Yugi didn't remind him that he'd have to lose. The other teen probably assumed he'd win, again, just as he had in Battle City. "Doesn't the defeat in Battle City mean that the Rod is yours?"

"If it worked like that, you could have claimed the Puzzle at Duellist Kingdom." Yami snorted, "If you're going to claim a Millennium Item, either you must state it, or you have to take it before anyone else does. Why do you think Jamie was able to defend herself with the Ring, when it was technically Marik's after Bakura was defeated?"

Kaiba hadn't really thought about it, having had little contact with the Pokémon Trainer after she'd gained the gaudy piece of jewellery other then to work out the details of her journey and who would take over from her when she left. "I assumed that it was because the spirit inside likes her."

Yami shook his head, "Yami Bakura was gone. Marik could have claimed the Millennium Ring, but Jamie grabbed it first. When he let her leave with it, she gained ownership, though she probably never realised it at the time."

"So you're telling me I have an employee travelling around the world who is the current owner of one of these," Kaiba put the Rod down on the table, "and doesn't know it?"

"Jamie gave it back to Bakura before she left." Yami advised, "As far as I'm aware she didn't lose a game to him, so I don't know if Bakura can use his Millennium Item, but I know he has it."

Kaiba nodded, "He's after the Millennium Items." He mentioned, remembering the conversation before the quarter final match between Bakura and Yugi.

Yugi's Other Self nodded, "His Millennium Item can track others, so he will probably come after yours at some point."

Kaiba found it oddly satisfying that other than when the Other Yugi had assumed Kaiba would want to relinquish control of the Millennium Item, neither Yugi questioned his right to hold the Rod. "Where are the others?" The CEO asked, having seen from watching Yugi, that the greatest danger to a Millennium Item holder was another of their kind.

"I hold two. The Puzzle, which has always been mine." And somehow Kaiba knew that 'mine' encompassed the original Yugi too, "And the Necklace, which Isuzu gave me after you beat her."

"Gave? I thought you had to win them." Kaiba scowled.

"So did I." Yami snorted, "But she claimed the Necklace was giving her false visions and she wasn't supposed to hold it any longer."

"Sore loser." Kaiba snorted.

Yami smirked slightly, an odd saying he'd heard someone mention about the colour of pots and kettles springing to mind. "The Millennium Key and the Millennium Scales belong to a man named Shadi. He's supposed to be the Guardian of the Millennium Items." Yami paused to think, "He might be by at some point to test you, to see if you're worthy of its power." The Pharaoh indicated the Rod.

Kaiba snorted, "If he's supposed to be their guardian, how, exactly, did they end up in Marik's hands?"

The Other Yugi shrugged, "The same way the Eye ended up in the hands of Pegasus, I assumed."

"So Pegasus's cheating…" Seto snarled. He still hadn't forgiven Pegasus for making him fail Mokuba, or showing him that he wasn't strong enough to protect his brother on his own. The Millennium Rod was both another thing that drove the point home and the thing that would allow him to protect his brother against other idiots with magic.

"It was a Millennium Item." Yami nodded, agreeing with Kaiba's snarl, still disliking Pegasus even now, for what he'd put Yugi through. "The Eye allows you to see into people's minds, but I don't know where it is. It went missing after Duellist Kingdom. I'm sure Bakura had something to do with that, but I have no proof."

Kaiba nodded, making a note to get more information on Bakura Ryou, if he was going to become a thorn in his side.

"And the Rod makes seven and, apparently, it's yours." The Other Yugi finished up, there was a pause and then…

"Kaiba, I wouldn't blame you if you didn't want to be dragged into this." The normal Yugi spoke up, having taken over from his arrogant, self assured counter part, "I know you wanted nothing to do with the magic involved in Duel Monsters, and…"

"I know what you're about to offer Yugi." Kaiba interrupted, making the innocent Yugi tilt his head, interested in what he was about to say, "You're about to offer me the chance to hand over the Rod so I don't become involved in the chaos that you've been dragged into, but you're forgetting something."

"What's that?" Yugi asked.

"I'm already involved. I have been since I fought you for the first time."

"Sorry." Yugi murmured.

Kaiba didn't correct him, though he felt that the first Penalty Game, all those years ago when he had tried to steal Blue Eyes from Yugi in school, had been the inspiration for his hologram technology.

If Yugi wanted to feel guilty for getting him involved, he wasn't going to stop him. It would, after all, mean that he could call in a favour later on.

"With that in mind, I called you here to see if you knew any way of controlling the powers of this thing." Seto continued, "Because I'll be keeping the Millennium Rod."

"Well…" Yugi could see all the options running through Yami's mind, and offered up the thought that it would be nice to have an item wielder on their side for a change. "I'm not sure if we can teach you everything about it, but we certainly teach you the basics. I have one condition though."

"Go on." The CEO gave Yugi a bemused look. It was unlike Yugi to demand anything.

"You're not to use the Millennium Rod on me or any of my friends." Yugi said, "And in exchange we won't use the Puzzle on you or Mokuba, deal?"

"If those are your only terms, then yes, Yugi, we have a deal."

**LINE_RECOGNTION_HAS_GONE_AGAIN**

**Author Note: - About ruddy time. This chapter didn't want to be written. Oh well here you go guys. The first chapter of Sheer Cold. BTW the first chapter of Sacred Fire, this fic's sister should have gone up at the same time : )**


	2. Keeping Secrets

"I brought you a present from the girls." Tristan said as he chucked the parcel to his friend. Joey was being released from hospital today and was just finishing packing up his stuff, "They sent one to Yugi too."

Joey stopped and caught it, moving a lot faster now then he had been able to for the last month or so but still holding back slightly. "It's nice to be getting out of here finally." Joey commented as he checked the tag, wondering what 'the girls' had sent him.

He knew who Tristan meant by that, whenever his friend spoke of Mai and Jamie he referred to them as 'the girls', but he'd spoken to them just this morning and they hadn't mentioned anything about presents.

"Joey, this will make your life easier." He read out loud, "It might seem a little heavy at first but you'll get used to the weight, trust me on that. Just don't ask how we got it." Curious now, Joey opened the package to find a belt that looked very similar to the one that Jamie wore that held her Pokeballs, except for the fact that there was a deck holster on it and the buckle had an odd cerulean blue symbol on it that looked kind of like a Dragonair.

"Yugi's had a sideways crescent moon on." Tristan commented, "I wasn't even aware they'd found any Pokemarts yet but..."

Joey tested the weight of the belt, before putting it on and slipping his deck into the holster. He paused for a moment as he considered the Pokeballs on the bedside table and slipped them into place on the belt, becoming surprised when they both attached and came away easily.

"They called me this morning." Tea said, speaking up as Tristan grabbed Joey's bag and the three o f them left, signing the right paperwork on their way out of the door and heading for the Day Care Centre to meet up with Yugi, who was supposed to be getting off of work soon. "They told me to tell you to take it easy."

Joey snorted, "The Doctors have already told me I'm not allowed to go back to work for another fortnight," He looked frustrated by that, "And no heavy lifting for two weeks after that."

"You nearly died." Tea's tone was reproachful as Joey backed up, amused by her reaction. "Of course you need to be careful."

"I will, I will." Joey put his hands up in the air with a chuckle, "Mokuba's been getting status updates on me from Yugi and he's already turned around and said that he's going to be checking the clock in register and if I'm on it before my fortnight's up he's docking my pay."

"That's nice of him." Tristan sounded surprised.

Joey just snorted. He had a feeling it was half concern and half that Mokuba didn't want a staff member collapsing in the Day Care, especially while tending to the Pokémon. It would make them look bad and scare people off.

"Let's go pick up Yuge." Joey said, trying to shrug off the odd feeling that he was being watched. "He's probably exhausted by now."

**LINE_RECOGNITION_HAS_GONE_AGAIN**

"Watch it, Kaiba!" Yami snapped as he picked himself up, wincing slightly and cursing that he hadn't seen that bolt of dark magic coming until it had hit.

Kaiba had stopped paying attention the moment that Yami had started to pick himself up and was now looking at the Millennium Rod speculatively. "I've never seen you do that." He commented at the Pharaoh, who glanced at the clock and gained a slight frown.

"I can," Yami replied, "But I prefer not to. I prefer to keep my powers a secret and I don't generally need to blast people when I have Joey and Tristan with me anyway. They normally act long before I need to."

Kaiba let out a soft snort as he looked the Pharaoh over. He had been one of the first to notice that there were two Yugis and he had often wondered just how powerful Yugi's Puzzle really was. He'd accepted that magic was real a long time before the Millennium Rod had come into his hands – around the time his brother's soul had been sealed into a playing card.

"Kaiba?" Yugi's voice broke Kaiba's train of thoughts, "I need to leave. Now."

Kaiba scowled as he looked at the clock and realised that he'd kept Yugi here for too long. He didn't want it getting out that he owned a Millennium Item, so he'd arranged the sessions with Yugi for times when his friends would think that he was in work. That arrangement was coming to an end with Wheeler's release from hospital.

"I'll get someone to drop you off at the Day Care." Kaiba nodded, "But I will be calling this evening to arrange our next lesson."

Yugi nodded, his hand slipping to his pocket where he kept the mobile phone Kaiba had given him when he'd agreed to teach him, stating that he didn't trust an unsecure line and that the mobile he'd given Yugi was encrypted to only respond to certain numbers.

What he hadn't told his teacher in Shadow Magic was that the mobile would patch straight through to Kaiba's personal number, which only Roland and Mokuba had, and that he could use it as a much more cost effective way of keeping tabs on his rival. Oh it was underhanded and quite possibly illegal, but Yugi wasn't likely to find out and, though he knew Yami would be furious, somehow he knew Yugi wouldn't get irate about it.

"Mr Mutou?" Roland poked his head around the door and Yugi turned to follow.

"See you later, Kaiba." Yugi paused and waved at the door and then departed.

Kaiba watched the limo leave out of the window, then turned back to his work, trying not to think about how unhappy Yugi was with the current arrangements.

He knew Yugi hated keeping secrets from his friends, but he'd played on the fact that Yugi would never break a promise to force the teen into keeping their lessons from the others, a fact that had irritated Yami.

The stupid thing was that two weeks ago when he'd started these lessons with Yugi and his other self, he wouldn't have cared. Yugi had called Kaiba his friend long before he'd started teaching him but until the CEO had spent any real amount of time around his rival he hadn't realised that he actually felt concern for Yugi and that, for all his claims that he didn't give a damn about Yugi and his dweeb squad, he'd actually been concerned when he'd heard about the helicopters being brought down and not just because of the bad reputation it would give his pilots.

Seto's phone rang and the CEO picked it up quickly, recognising the ring tone instantly. "Mokuba?"

"Come to the roof Seto." Mokuba's tone was oddly flat, making Seto frown. Mokuba was never that emotionless, especially when talking to him, "Quickly."

And with that he put down the phone leaving Seto confused and concerned.

In a heartbeat Kaiba had called up the security footage for the roof, letting out a curse when he realised that the cameras up there weren't working.

He ripped open the drawer containing his deck and Duel Disk and combined the two before darting out of his office and over to the elevator, glad of the helipad that necessitated such a convenience.

When the doors opened he was confronted by the sight of his little brother stood at the side of a man in a turban and a white robe who looked to be of Egyptian decent and had an odd, blank look to his eyes.

But not as blank as his brother's.

"Shadi, I presume." Kaiba growled, spotting the Millennium Key almost instantly, "Yugi warned me of your powers. Undo what you did to my brother and I won't have to tear you apart."

"If the Pharaoh's vessel has warned you about me, then you know what I am here to do, Kaiba Seto."

"You think you have the right to test everyone who holds a Millennium Item." Kaiba snorted, well aware that if this freak dared to call Yugi that in front of Yami the Pharaoh wouldn't stand for it. "But if you were really ensuring the Millennium Items were going to their rightful holders Marik wouldn't have nearly killed the Pharaoh. Twice."

Shadi paused at Seto's tone and stance then mentally shook his head, "It does not matter what you believe of me, Kaiba." The spirit said, "If you want your brother restored you will play my game."

Kaiba snarled, furious, grey blue eyes flashing angrily, "You harm my brother any more then you already have and you will pay with your life. Understand me?"

"How could I not?" Shadi asked, his Key glowing, "Let the game begin."

**LINE_RECOGNTION_HAS_GONE_AGAIN**

Bakura didn't come to the Day Care very often any more. The Pharaoh was there too often for the Thief King to feel comfortable but on the days when Kaiba 'borrowed' Yugi for a few hours he popped by, if only to give his Flygon some face time with other Pokémon.

While his Haunter often came and went as he pleased, in fact Bakura was half certain it was haunting Yugi, Flygon didn't have the same option. He exactly didn't disagree with the practice, especially when Haunter instigated things like 'kidnap the Pharaoh's hikari' - while Bakura didn't need the Pharaoh snarling at him it was always amusing to watch the King get riled up.

He didn't even pause when he sensed the Shadows flare up. They often did when Yami was teaching Kaiba, the Pharaoh and the CEO were prone to rubbing each other the wrong way and sometimes even Yugi's legendary levelheadedness wasn't enough to stop the magic flowing.

He knew. He'd tracked down the Pharaoh when Yugi had vanished after school the first time, and he'd sensed Shadow magic soon after he'd seen the pair arguing. Kaiba was very good at keeping his emotions in check, but bad at keeping his magic under control, probably because just over a month ago he hadn't believed in magic, and as such was a complete novice at something for the first time in years.

"Oi, Mutou! We could've done with you earlier! The ghosts have been playing up again!" His head shot towards the staff lounge, where Yugi was emerging from the door looking a little tired, and frowned, confused.

It wasn't like Kaiba didn't play with his toy if the Pharaoh wasn't around, but the wave of Shadow magic he'd sensed had definitely come from two Millennium Items.

"Sorry, sorry." The runt waved it off, except that while the first sorry had been Yugi, the second was much deeper. Yami gave his Hikari a worried look as the spirit-form teen took off after the group of ghosts, "I was out on an errand for the boss's brother." Yami shrugged, a frown settling as his eyes came to rest on Bakura.

"And what Mr. Kaiba wants…" One of the Trainers rolled their eyes as they turned away to help Denkou, Jamie's Raichu, move her yellow and black eggs somewhere safe.

"... Mr Kaiba gets." One of the other staff members finished, nodding as they passed, heading out for their break. Bakura lost interest in the rest of the conversation, though he knew he saw the nameless Pharaoh stiffen out of the corner of his eye as the combined magic of three Millennium Items became easy to sense.

Now, Bakura had two Millennium Items, the Ring and the Eye, the Pharaoh held another two - the Puzzle and the Necklace - but the only other Millennium Item in Domino was the Rod, which Kaiba currently held and which Bakura planned to relieve him of before too long.

Which meant that the only two remaining Millennium Items belonged to a spirit who was even worse at staying dead then he was. After all Bakura had personally killed off the holder of the Scales and the Key millennia before Yugi had been born.

Part of Bakura was torn over what to do.

No matter who won the game the end result was the same, at least in terms of his long term plan (and every time he thought about it, the term got longer). Either Kaiba would lose and Shadi would confiscate the Millennium Rod, which should in theory then go to the nameless Pharaoh (somehow, Bakura doubted that that would happen) or Kaiba would win and Bakura would take it from him when he beat Kaiba at the game he was preparing for him.

Before he could make up his mind, the Pharaoh strode over and planted himself in front of Bakura, glowering as if he thought that Bakura was the cause of the magic.

"What are you doing here?"

"Sitting." Bakura smirked back at him, already amused at the Pharaoh's defensiveness. He watched as Yugi's head shot towards his dark half, a concerned look crossing his features. Yugi apologised to the ghosts and vanished, returning to the Millennium Puzzle and the safety of his Soul Room.

"Why are you sitting here?" Yami growled.

"Unless you've already forgotten, Pharaoh, and that wouldn't surprise me considering your horrendous memory, I was training Pokémon long before you were." Bakura snorted back, still trying to decide whether to go deal with Shadi again or continue to drive the Pharaoh up the wall considering that there was no way Yami would challenge him while at work. "I'm allowed to let my Pokémon loose here at any time I want and Flygon," Bakura gestured towards the Ground/Dragon Pokémon who was chasing a group of bird Pokémon across the sky, "Needed some time in the air with other Pokémon."

"Mutou!" Langley bellowed, frustrated as one of the ghost Pokémon, who was annoyed by Yugi's sudden vanishing act, picked up one of the customers and started making them float up towards the ceiling and wary of setting his electric type Pokémon on it when they were holding onto someone, "Ghosts. Deal with them."

Yami hesitated but Yugi took spirit form and put his hand on Yami's before darting towards the problem.

Yami turned on Bakura and gave him the strongest death glare ever. "You lay a hand on Yugi or get your ghost to do it for you and I swear…"

"Yeah, yeah. I have no interest in getting into a brawl with you today anyway." Bakura leant back on the bench he was sat on and waved off Yami's anger, "Besides, you keep blaming me when the ghosts abscond with your better half, but I have little enough to do with my host, what interest could I possibly have in yours?"

Yami bristled but before he could say anything to that, his friends called out to him, having just walked through the door.

Yugi looked over, delighted to see Joey out of hospital and quickly turned to Yami, hesitating momentarily when he remembered that Yami didn't like dealing with the ghosts. Yami just sighed and switched himself with his hikari.

"_Thanks , Yami." _ Yugi called to his dark as he grinned at him over his shoulder before darting over to his friends, leaving Yami to deal with the ghost type Pokémon.

While watching the ghosts run circles around the high and mighty Pharoah was fun, Bakura had no interest in getting caught here by any of his friends. However as Bakura collected up his Pokémon, Joey came over to him and hesitated for just a moment before saying, "Thanks."

Bakura just stared at him, not sure what Wheeler was saying 'thanks' for.

"Look, I know you probably had your own reason for doing it, but thanks for helping me rescue my sister."

And if Wheeler thought that he would have done anything to help a friend of the Pharaoh then obviously he really was losing his touch. Obviously a dangerous game with near death experiences would be required soon in order to gain some of his former reputation back.

Bakura turned and left, refusing to admit to himself that during that fight, for just one moment, he'd felt a kinship with the Pharaoh's protector.

**LINE_RECOGNITION_HAS_GONE _AGAIN**

"You'll blow A.C.'s cover." The voice made Spectre, a black-haired, scrawny youth with pale skin glance up irritably from where he was glowering through the Day Care's glass frontage.

"Piss off, Venom." The teen shot back at the purple-haired woman, "At least my target's in there, yours isn't even in Domino."

"Wow," Venom looked impressed as she looked away from her immaculately manicured nails and considered the teen in front of her carefully, "How did someone as inoffensive as that runt tick you off this badly?"

"You wouldn't understand." Spectre growled, not wanting to explain it, even to one member of the tiny group he considered colleagues.

"You can't touch him yet, Spectre." Venom warned, with a concerned look for her team mate, "He's untouchable until Mars gives the order. They all are except Her."

Spectre scowled. He didn't see the point of being assigned targets if they couldn't question them, especially now that they had another method of tracking them.

"Come." Venom ordered, the older teen pulling rank and seniority on him, "I need a hand and Mars has Oracle working on something else."

Spectre's glower only deepened at that. There were six of them in what was less politely known as Mars' freak squad, and as one of the younger members he hated the way the others thought they could order him around, especially when even Oracle, who was younger then him, did it.

"Now, Spectre." Venom insisted, impatiently.

Spectre turned to look inside the Day Care for a few more moments, taking in the real Yugi Mutou interacting with his friends while the ghost that sometimes possessed him was left with dealing with the ghosts that Mutou had riled up. If Spectre was right, the ghost was the one that did all the fighting and duelling, and now he was being left to clean up Mutou's other messes as well.

"Spectre." Venom growled, getting annoyed. No one ignored her if she had her way.

"Why can't Flame or Snow help?" Spectre demanded.

"Because Snow's busy with the computers and Flame's powers aren't subtle enough."

"Fine," Spectre said as he turned to look at her, "But if I help you with this, I want your assistance with something."

Venom paused, gaining a small smirk, as if she thought him bargaining with her was funny, "Do tell."

Spectre gestured for her to precede him, "I'll tell you on the way."

**LINE_RECOGNITION_HAS_GONE_AGAIN**

"You've got to be kidding me." Joey protested, having not seen the hordes that had been challenging Yami almost constantly since Battle City.

"This is a small group." Yami commented, having taken control of the body the moment they'd walked around the corner and straight into a group of twelve Duellists. The Pharaoh was more then a little fed up with the almost constant stream of Duellists that had come to challenge him on a non stop basis since he'd gained the God Cards, and often enjoyed the peace and quiet he got in the Day Care - Kaiba Corp was refusing to fix any Duel Disk that suffered from 'overcharge' damage (which was what Kaiba was calling getting hit by a Thunderbolt from an irritable Raichu).

It wasn't like any of them could use the damn things, in fact Joey had traded Ra with him for that exact reason. Yami was beginning to think that they were more trouble then they were worth.

Not that that meant that he wouldn't use the God Cards, but…

"Do you have an order sorted out?" Yami asked the group, well aware he'd probably get through three of them at least before some of the others decided they were going to try their luck another day, either because of boredom or because they had to travel to get home.

At which point it devolved into a brawl as everyone tried to be first.

The gang would have taken the opportunity to slip around the group and run to the relative safety of the Game Shop, but they didn't get the chance as one of the Duellists slammed their deck into their Duel Disk before anyone could say anything. He played a field card that expanded out from the Duellist and pushed everyone but Yami away, leaving the pair of them in a giant, glowing green circle, the outer ring of which had runes running around it while a six pointed star appeared on the ground below them.

Yami could sense the magic surrounding them easily, a scowl gracing his features for a moment before he realised that his friends weren't stood at his side.

"Joey? Tea? Tristan?" Yami asked, wheeling around to look at his friends who were picking themselves up.

"Ow." Joey commented, causing concern to pass over the link from Yugi until Joey gave him a reassuring look and gestured towards his opponent, "We're fine, focus on him."

Yami nodded and turned back to his adversary, "What is this?" Yami demanded, gesturing towards the circle and amused by the way that the other Duellists that had been there to challenge him had legged it even as he was wary of what the magic that now surrounded him was.

"This," The guy said, his head glowing with the same symbol as the one now at their feet, his eyes glowing the same colours, "Is the Seal of Orichelcos," Yami was distracted for a moment by Joey trying to cross the edge of the seal, only to bounce back off of the wall of green light that separated Yami from his friends, "Now you have to fight me first because until one of us wins, neither of us are getting out."

Yami let out a low growl, "Fine, but you should know that I'm no stranger to ancient magic." He said as he tried to tap into the Puzzle's power. His Millennium Item glowed for just a moment then, to Yami's shock and Yugi's dismay, the glow died as the Puzzle's magic was crushed under the weight of the Seal's power. "What?"

"They told me you'd try something like that." The Duellist in question commented, "That you'd try and cheat using magic. Now I've got the power behind me. Your God cards will soon belong to me."

"Who are you? And who are 'they'?" Yami demanded, fuming.

"I'm Drake Miller, but soon they'll be calling me 'King of Games'." The Duellist sneered. He was a tall brunette man with eyes that had been brown before the Orichelcos had tainted them. "As for who **they** are, it doesn't really matter." Drake played two cards face down and set a monster in defence mode. "It's your move, Yugi."

Yami growled slightly at the way Drake said Yugi's name, making it sound like something rude. He felt Yugi's calming presence at the back of his mind as the hikari told him to pay it no mind and that Drake was trying to rile him up, something Yami would recognise if he calmed down and started thinking properly.

The Pharaoh took a deep breath as he drew, well aware that Yugi was right. He was allowing his concern over the Seal to cloud his judgement, but if Drake was so certain that he'd escape unharmed if he won, then what Yami needed to do to get both himself and Yugi out safely was to beat Drake at whatever it was he had planned.

"I play one card face down," Yami said as he considered his hand and then looked at Drake's cards, wondering what kind of deck the other Duellist played, "And I summon Queen's Knight in attack mode." The Knight appeared on the field and glowered at the enemy as Yami continued, "And that ends my turn."

"You're so predictable." Drake snorted, "Do you have King's Knight in your hand too?" He asked as he drew, "I play Double Summon, allowing me to summon my Chamberlin of the Six Samurai and sacrifice my face down, Shien's Footsoldier, to summon my Grandmaster of the Six Samurai." The two monsters appeared on the field for only seconds before they let out a surprised cry and their eyes glowed like their master's as the symbol of the Seal appeared on their forehead and their attack points grew by 500, "And that's not all. Because I have two Six Samurai monsters out on the field I can summon my Great Shogun Shien to the field as well."

The seven star, warrior/effect monster appeared on the field to join his comrades only to be possessed by the seal as well.

"Try getting out of this one." Drake smirked, "Grandmaster, destroy his Queen's Knight."

Yami internally winced as his Queen's Knight tried to defend herself, only to die at the end of the Grandmaster's sword.

"Now my Shogun, attack him directly." Drake ordered before Yami's points had stopped falling.

"I activate Magic Cylinder!"

"What?" That was about all Drake had time to say before the Shogun's attack backfired, the power slash going though one tube and back out the other and knocked Drake off of his feet as 3000 points worth of damage struck him directly.

"Ready to call this off?" Yami asked as Drake picked himself up slowly, looking unsteady on his feet, "You can't win."

"You'd like to believe that wouldn't you?" Drake demanded, his movements pained, "Chamberlain, attack him directly!"

Yami winced as Drake's Chamberlain knocked another 700 points off of his total, taking him down to 2200, "That ends my turn."

"Before you move, Yugi," Drake sounded far too pleased with himself, "You might like to know that because of my Shogun's effect you can only activate one spell or trap card each turn."

Yami scowled. That made his life more difficult, but he could still win this. "I set one card face down and activate my Pot of Greed magic card…" Yami paused as electricity passed through him for less then a microsecond. He knew that feeling and indeed, when he looked at the card he found himself staring at Obelisk the Tormentor.

Now to get him out…

"And set a card face down in defence mode. That ends my turn."

Drake snorted, unconcerned, as he drew, "I play Fusion Sword Murasame Blade, equipping it to my Shogun." Drake's Shogun handed his sword to the Chamberlain and took the Murasame Blade, examining it as his attack points grew by 800.

"Now." Drake said, looking at Yami's field, "Let's try this again. Grandmaster, attack his face down card!"

"I activate Soul Shield!" Yami called, his points dropping to 1100 as Drake's Grandmaster stopped mid attack and returned to Drake's side of the field.

"Last turn, Yugi. Next turn you won't be able to protect yourself."

"_He's wrong, Yami."_ Yugi sent, sensing his dark half's confidence wavering slightly, _"We'll win."_

Yami sent the mental equivalent of a nod as he drew, believing his light's words, letting out a relieved sigh as he looked at the card in his hand, "I play Monster Reborn, bringing back my Queen's Knight from the graveyard." His Queen's Knight came back from the Graveyard and scowled at the enemy, "And I summon my King's Knight in attack mode."

"And because you summoned King's Knight and Queen's Knight, you can summon Jack's Knight. I know. Just get on with it." Drake grouched, gesturing towards the Pharaoh who swiftly summoned his Jack's Knight.

"I set two cards face down and end my turn."

"You know, even with your Knights on the field, you're going down this turn and you didn't even get a chance to summon your God cards." Drake commented as he drew, "My Shogun has more then enough attack points to wipe out your life points in one fell swoop. Shogun attack his Queen's Knight! Send her back to the graveyard and her Master's reputation with her!"

"Zero Gravity!"

"Damn it! How many stall cards do you have?" Drake demanded, furious as his Duel Monsters switched to defence mode. If Yugi had used his Mirror Force, he had Musakani Magatama face down which could have negated and destroyed it, however… "I end my turn."

"My turn then," Yami smirked, "And I sacrifice my three Knights for Obelisk the Tormentor!" The huge blue Egyptian God monster appeared with a bellow, appearing ill amused by what was going on and ready for battle. "Obelisk, destroy his Shogun!"

Obelisk punched Drake's Shogun who burst into about a million shards and vanished from the field.

"Your move, Drake."

Drake hesitated before drawing. He couldn't win now, he was well aware of that little fact. None of his monster effects or trap cards could harm the huge beast, and he had nothing that was as strong as it and if Yugi summoned another one…

"I fold." Drake said, putting his hand over his deck, "You win." Even as he spoke the seal started closing in on Drake, who looked around, panicked. "What?"

"You gave in." The speaker was one of a trio of bikers who were stood waiting and watching at the end of the alley. "And only the winner gets to leave the seal. The loser's soul becomes a sacrifice to the Great Beast."

"You didn't tell me that!" Drake yelped before he was lost in a bright green glow. As the glow died down his body hit the floor, soulless.

Before anyone could move, the redheaded biker had stepped forward to take the card that had ejected from the fallen Duellist's field card slot by itself before snapping the cord on a weird pendant that Drake had been wearing under his shirt and pocketing the pendant.

"I told you he couldn't do it." One of the others, a brunette, chuckled. He sounded far too amused for the group's liking. "I suppose it was a good test though. Now we have more of a clue what he," The Biker's eyes flickered to Yami, who glowered back, "Can do."

The final, biker just nodded before scowling at the Pharaoh. "Don't get too relaxed, Pharaoh." The huge blonde growled at Yami, who tensed up, wondering if he'd have to duel again so soon, "We'll be back." With that the trio left.

"The hell was that about?" Joey demanded as Tristan tried to wake Drake up.

Yami just stared in the direction the bikers had gone.

"_And I thought we had enough trouble with Galactic…"_

**LINE_RECOGNITION_HAS_GONE_AGAIN**

"Hi."

Mokuba, who hadn't long been rescued from Shadi by his brother, jumped a mile at the sound of the girl's voice in his office. He turned around to find a small, mousey gaijin girl waving at him happily from her perch on one of the short filing cabinets against the walls. The door slammed closed behind him.

"Who are you?" He demanded, already reaching for the pokeball in his back pocket as he backed up towards his desk, completely confused as to how this girl had gotten into his office without anyone knowing.

"I'm Oracle." The girl said, waving her hand and paralyzing Mokuba on the spot. She circled the younger Kaiba brother, who was trapped in a strange pink glow, once and then came to stand in front of him, "You know, you're cuter then Mars gave you credit for."

"What…?" Mokuba's tone wavered as he tried to break free of whatever was holding him.

"Definitely cuter then your big brother." Oracle continued as she walked around him and moved over to his desk, "Now, where do you keep your staff files?"

"Get away from there." It frustrated Mokuba that he couldn't see what she was doing.

"Password encrypted." The girl, Oracle, sighed, "Could you tell me your password?"

"Why?" Mokuba asked as who she worked for sank in. "What do you need it for?"

"Please?" Oracle asked as Mokuba was forced to turn around to face her by the power holding him captive. "With a cheri berry on top?"

"No."

"I'm nicer then my colleagues," Oracle told him, giving him a slightly bored look, "But I need all of your files on the Day Care Staff members, specifically those on what Pokémon they hold, so if you'd be so kind as to give them to me, I won't have to play nasty."

"I'm not scared of you." Mokuba would have shaken his head if he could have, refusing to show any weakness, just as he knew his brother would. Kaibas didn't bend to anyone.

The tiny brunette moved towards him again, giving him a slightly hurt look, "I'm not gunna hurt anyone. I just want to know who's holding the Master Ball. Of course…" She waved her hand again and Houndour's pokeball floated out of his pocket, "Apparently it's not…what?"

She jumped back slightly and the aura surrounding Mokuba vanished as, in a bright white light Houndour appeared, growling at the girl.

"You're not supposed to just let yourself out like… meep." Oracle squeaked as Houndour roared at her.

"I have no idea where the Master Ball is, now get out of my office." Mokuba told Oracle as Houndour loosed a flame attack that narrowly missed and, instead set the desk on fire, causing the sprinklers to kick in.

"I don't like you very much." A soggy looking Oracle told the Dark/Fire Pokémon before vanishing into thin air.

"Mr Mokuba!" His PA burst into the room where the sprinklers were in the process of dousing the flames, "Are you alright?"

"Where's my…"

He didn't even get to 'brother' as Seto strode into the room with an irate look on his face, though Mokuba could see the concern behind it.

"What happened here?" Kaiba demanded as the last of the flames went out.

"We need to work on our security." Mokuba sighed, relieved that Seto seemed unharmed, "We had another intruder. Houndour…" Mokuba trailed off as his Houndour started glowing white, "Um…"

The three of them, all of whom were still swiftly looking progressively more and more like drowned rats, watched in shock as Houndour's shape and size changed, until finally the light died down, leaving behind a huge black dog with white horns, a silvery collar around it's neck with a skull motif for a tag and white stripes across his back.

"What?"

"Houndoom!" The canine Pokémon bellowed.

"Was that evolution?" Mokuba asked, slightly stunned.

"I don't care, just put it back in its ball." Kaiba growled, "It's caused enough trouble today." With that he stomped out of the room, muttering something about lost hours and firing every member of the security staff if they were so incompetent that they let two complete strangers into the building, independently, in one day.

Mokuba, however, was more concerned and turned to look at his Pokémon as the fire alarm cut off and the sprinklers died. "If you promise not to set anything else on fire, you can stay out."

The Houndoom looked like it was thinking about it for a moment, then he moved over to sit at the side of Mokuba's desk.

"Mr Kaiba, shouldn't we leave?"

"The fire's out and…" Mokuba groaned as he realised that his computer had shorted out. Then something hit him. If they'd come after him, Mars might be after the others too… He gestured for his PA to leave as Houndoom paced the room irritably, annoyed at being wet, and called up a number on his phone.

"Risha? Is Mutou still there? No? His friends came by? Alright thanks." Mokuba put down the phone and instantly started dialling the Game Shop. "Mutou-San? Is Yugi home yet? Do you have his mobile number? Alright, thanks." Mokuba scribbled it down as Solomon said it, "No, no everything's ok… thanks, bye."

Mokuba let out a soft sigh as he rang the number. Third time was the charm as Yugi picked up.

"Moshi moshi?"

"Yugi? We need to talk."

**LINE_RECOGNITON_HAS_GONE_AGAIN**

Author Note: - Things are beginning to kick off in Domino and it's not only Yugi and the gang who are in trouble. Look out for the next chapter of Sacred Fire.


	3. Falling Apart

"Bast." Yugi tried coxing his Persian off of the top of the wardrobe, "Bast, drop it. I need that for work."

The Persian, who had her teeth sunk into the sleeve of Yugi's work shirt just sat there out of his reach looking pleased with herself. He had other shirts. Unfortunately they were all in the wash, leaving the shirt Bast had the only dry one he owned.

"Please? I'll bring you back some Pokeblock." Yugi tried bribery, well aware that Bast could understand him when she wanted to.

Unfortunately right now she didn't want to. Instead the thirty-two kilo feline settled down on top of the wardrobe, squishing the shirt underneath her.

'_You know, you could just put her back in her Pokeball.' _Yami pointed out.

Yugi resisted the urge to facepalm, having not thought of that option and reached across to his bedside cabinet where he kept the Pokeballs for Bast and Okibi, only to find his Vulpix batting them across the room.

"If I didn't know better, I'd say the pair of you didn't want me to go to work today." Yugi complained at the pair of them.

Bast's response was to just yawn and go to sleep while Okibi barked happily at him and continued batting the balls across the room and out the door.

"Hey!" Yugi yelped, chasing the red foxlike creature down the corridor.

"Vulpix Vul!" Okibi sounded like it was highly amused as she knocked both Pokeballs down the hallway and underneath the sofa.

"Okibi..." Yugi groaned as he fished around under the sofa for the pair, finally managing to find them amongst the various other things that had been lost under there, including the TV remote, one of Joey's lost socks and a small mountain of Duel Monster cards.

Swiftly recalling his Pokémon to their respective holding items and changing for work before grabbing his bag and making a break for it, Yugi was halfway down the road when his mobile phone went off.

"Mutou Yugi speaking." He answered it, slowing down enough so he could talk and walk at the same time. Not many people had his number after all. Kaiba had it because he'd been the one to provide Yugi with the thing in the first place. Mokuba and work had it too. Other than that it was literally only his close friends and his Grandpa who had it so if it rang it was probably important.

"Yugi, hi." Mokuba's tone caused Yugi to pause, "Get in the limo."

"What?" Yugi yelped, stopping in his tracks at that.

"Get in the limo." Mokuba half asked, half demanded, "I'll explain in a minute. Don't worry, I've got your hours covered at work. Just..." The younger Kaiba brother sounded desperate, "Please..."

Yugi looked down the road and spotted the car Mokuba was talking about. It pulled up beside him within seconds and Yugi slipped into the backseat without thinking. Half surprised to find Mokuba waiting for him, he dropped the call as the car pulled away from the curb and turned all his attention to his friend. "What happened?"

Mokuba bit his lower lip, considering Yugi carefully for a moment before speaking. "You do have your deck on you, don't you?"

"Of course." Yugi nodded, "Duel Disk too, though they both would have gone in my..."

"It's fine, Yugi." Mokuba cut Yugi off before he could say the word 'locker', "I know you wouldn't use them in the Day Care. It's just that... Seto asked me to pick you up. He wants a rematch."

Yugi frowned slightly at that. Kaiba hadn't called him about a rematch, nor had he shown up to the lesson on Shadow Magic he'd booked with Yugi a few days ago. Instead he'd left a message about him going to see Pegasus and informing Yugi he'd be compensated for the time lost.

'_I don't like this.'_ Yami sent across the link. Yugi could sense the Pharaoh's own confusion, irritation and, though Yami would never admit it, concern.

"_Me either."_ Yugi admitted before turning all of his attention outwards, hoping to get some information before they arrived at Kaiba Corp, or wherever they were heading. "Why didn't Seto ring me? If he wanted a rematch he could have just phoned."

"I don't know." Mokuba looked unhappy, "Yugi, he..." Mokuba's gaze suddenly turned accusatory and the younger Kaiba's glare pinned Yugi to the spot, "You knew he had the Millennium Rod, didn't you?"

Yugi mentally winced as Yami took over, "He made us swear not to tell anyone. Even you, Mokuba."

"But I'm his brother!" Mokuba protested, knowing as well as Seto did that Yugi never broke his word. If he promised not to spread the word that Seto had the Rod, Yugi wouldn't tell a soul, "Why wouldn't he tell me?"

"Mokuba, why does Kaiba want a rematch with me so badly?" Yami asked, bringing the boy up sharply. Not that it wasn't a justified question, but Yami needed to know if he was walking into a Shadow Game. He'd never been quite convinced that Marik's psychotic side hadn't come from the Rod and as such had been on the lookout for a reappearance of the lunatic. "He's been more than willing to wait so far."

"I don't know." Mokuba admitted, "He's only just got back from his meeting with Pegasus and he pretty much threw the Rod at me when he sent me to get you. Said something about not needing its powers to beat you."

"_Well that sounds ominous."_ Yugi's voice wavered as he spoke and Yami sent reassurance down the link, He was well aware his light had been hoping for some down time considering that the guys with the 'Seal of Orichelcos' hadn't made a reappearance yet and Galactic had been being rather quiet. The last thing they needed was for Kaiba to have lost it again.

"I'll meet up with him." Yami informed Mokuba, "Hopefully I'll be able to find out what's going on. If he's not using the Rod, there isn't going to be a Shadow Game involved so whatever's going through his head probably isn't going to work."

The younger Kaiba brother scowled at Yami's offhanded comment. Brotherly loyalty demanded that he stick up for his older brother, but at the same time Seto was acting weird and the track record of Duels between Yugi and his brother kind of spoke for itself. "Don't underestimate my brother." He settled for finally, "You know how tough he can be."

**LINE_RECOGNTION_HAS_GONE_AGAIN**

"Easy, easy!" Joey chuckled as he was swamped by a group of Pokémon the moment he stepped through the doors of the Day Care, "I've only been away for few weeks." Technically he'd come out of hospital a little over a fortnight ago, but he'd been advised to rest for at least that long before going back to work. Between the hospital stay, the bed rest and the Battle City tournament, he hadn't been in work for almost a month and a half except for a flying visit, and, apparently, several of the Pokémon had missed him.

He ushered the Pokémon away from the door, so they weren't blocking the entrance, and released Kaida and Iblis from their Pokeballs before spending some time just settling the Pokémon down, trying to work out if there were more Pokémon around then there had been before.

"Wheeler." Kenta, one of his colleagues, nodded as Joey darted into the employee's area to dump his stuff in his locker before he started work. "Bout time you got back, some of the Pokémon have been a nightmare while you've been gone."

Joey frowned as he changed his shirt, confused by the issue, "I don't normally have trouble with anyone. Except maybe those Scyther."

"Exactly." Kenta snorted, "The awkward Pokémon like you, we've got a new one that's causing all sorts of trouble and Francis's Raichu laid eggs and won't let anyone get close to the nest. She was letting Mutou and Risha help her out at one point but she's stopped letting Risha close. Don't know why."

"That's not like her. She's normally so nice." Joey frowned, wondering what Risha had done to tick off the normally docile Raichu badly enough that she'd stop him getting to her eggs.

"Hasn't been the last couple of weeks. Except to Mutou." Kenta snorted, "Speaking of which, if you're in now, when's he due in? The ghosts are always much better behaved when he's on duty."

"Not for another hour yet." Joey waved off the comment as he finished getting changed and pinned on his name tag, "Now I'm back, he's dropped back to his contracted hours. Has the family business to help run after all."

Kenta stretched and took a sip of his drink. "Eh, can't say fairer than that. Oh, by the way, we've got a couple more guests in the pond. A couple of Buizel and a second Gyarados."

"Cool." Joey grinned, "I'll have to have a look. Is it the Gyarados playing up?"

"I could deal with the problem if it was the Gyarados. I'm sure Tsunami would help." The young man slouched on the staffroom's sofa sighed, "I'll be out in five and introduce you to the new trouble maker. I'm on my break at the moment so..."

"I'll leave you in peace then." Joey smiled and exited the room, looking around for Denkou.

The Raichu in question was jealously guarding a nest just under the trees, letting off little sparks of electricity whenever anyone got too close.

"Hey." Joey said, kneeling down at Denkou's side and getting a light shock for his trouble.

"Raiaichu Raicha Rai." Denkou growled at him, sparking angrily.

"Hey, I'm not going to steal your eggs. I just want to look at them." Joey chuckled, backing up slightly and holding his hands up in a gesture of surrender.

"Rai chu?" Denkou asked, watching him carefully.

"Just look, not touch, look, I promise." Joey said again, glad that Denkou had stopped sparking but not wanting to antagonise her into starting again, "Duellists' honour."

She considered him a moment or so more, then moved aside. "Raiai, Raichu Rai."

"I'll be careful." Joey nodded, not one hundred percent sure what Denkou had said, but translating the tone rather than the words and hoping he had it right as he moved closer and examined the eggs. They were, as he'd been told by Yugi, yellow and black, in a stripy pattern that intrigued Joey. "Wow Denkou. Jamie's gunna flip when she hears about this." He said admiringly.

Denkou nodded, looking proud of herself. "Raiai chu rai raichu?"

"I'm ok, just gunna be a little slow for a while." Joey said, noting the concern in Denkou's tone as he stood up, wincing as he did so, and moved back. "Is there anything you want? Food? Pokeblock? Something to drink?"

The Raichu shook her head and shooed Joey away, amusing the sixteen year old, who looked around, spotted a Pokémon he'd never seen before and wandered over to it.

"Hello." He said, giving the small blue and black canine a smile.

"Riolu!" The Pokémon snapped at him irritably, "Riolu Rilu!" It took a swipe at him.

"Hey." Joey blocked it with a growl. "No need for that, I was just saying hello."

The Pokémon gave him a confused look, red eyes blinking at him as if it hadn't expected that.

"I'm Joey." The Duellist continued, watching for a sign that the 'Riolu' might attack again. "What's your name?"

"Riolu ri." The Pokémon snapped out of its confusion and stalked off, growling at him as it left.

"Grouch." Joey snorted, watching it go.

"Wheeler, you alright?" Kenta asked, darting over.

"Fine, I'm guessing that one's the trouble maker." Joey nodded towards Riolu, who was sat next to the pool, trying to ignore the children around him and failing, "What's his problem?"

"Riolu's not one of our rehabilitation cases." Kenta explained, causing Joey to nod in understanding. "Risha brought him in, apparently he found him wandering around by the docks. We're guessing he got separated from his Trainer but we haven't seen anyone around Domino."

"Risha? Isn't he one of the Electric type specialists?" Joey frowned looking around the centre and catching sight of one of the few staff members he didn't recognise, a blonde teenager, who was probably just a few inches shorter than Joey, who looked rather more comfortable with the Pokémon then some of his co-workers.

"That's right." Kenta nodded, "He's a Trainer, from the Otherworld, like Francis is. Heard there were Pokémon down this way and came down himself."

Joey nodded, listening to Kenta's tone as much as his words. "Don't like him?" Joey questioned, as he considered the teenager. He didn't look dangerous, but then if he hadn't known how dangerous Marik was, he wouldn't have considered him a threat either.

Joey had to admit that while he understood why Yugi felt sorry for Isizu and Odion, Joey couldn't say he was completely sorry that Marik had been killed in that helicopter crash.

"Don't know him well enough." Kenta replied with a snort, "Nice enough bloke, but he doesn't give lengthy answers about anything. I think I know more about your mate Tristan then I do about Risha, and I've only ever met Tristan in passing." Kenta gave Joey a sideways look. "You might have more luck. You are good with awkward otherworlders, after all."

Joey glowered at Kenta, who chuckled and backed off to deal with a pair of children who were irritating a nest of Starly.

"Zero respect."

**LINE_RECOGNITION_HAS_GONE_AGAIN**

Mars was pacing the room irritably when Venom and A.C. returned from their mission.

"Well?" She demanded as the two PKNEs knelt before her, heads bowed.

"We faced the Champion, Jamelia Francis as ordered." Venom answered, her face a mixture of anger and joy that was rather odd to behold.

"And? And?" Mars demanded, longing for the days when she no longer had to herd the group of freaks around and could lead a normal life again. She could see herself bringing Deimos along for the ride. He had, after all, been her friend from childhood and they'd left town together but once the others had served their purpose, she'd let Cyrus dispose of them as he saw fit.

"She won't be a thorn in our side any longer." Venom smirked viciously, "I made sure of that myself."

"And the Master Ball?" That was the most important part to Mars, though she found Venom's vindictiveness delightful if a little distasteful.

"Wasn't with her." A.C. shrugged, though he looked a lot more ticked off than he sounded. "The Master Ball she was carrying was a fake."

"So where is it? You did think to get that information from her before you..." Mars trailed off, furious when neither Elemental Grunt would look her in the eye. "Neither of you thought to get her to tell you were it is before you put paid to her interference?"

"We were a little busy dealing with her companion, who didn't have the Master Ball either, and her Pokémon. Even poisoned as she was, she didn't stop fighting until the very end." There was a respect in A.C's tone that caused Mars' scowl to deepen. If her little Team of freaks started sympathising with their victims, it wouldn't be long before they started questioning loyalties.

"Guess it's time to declare open season on the others then." Mars shrugged nonchalantly, knowing that Spectre at least, and Flame, her precious Deimos, wouldn't balk at what needed to be done. "A Master Ball does not just disappear into thin air. One of her precious handpicked Trainers must have it, or, more likely, Mutou, considering that his powers are, according to reports, comparable to those of a legendary Pokémon."

"Commander Mars! Eep!" Oracle tripped over her own feet, tumbled over and would have landed hard on the floor except Venom, with serpentine grace and speed moved across the room and caught her before she could hit the floor.

"You should be more careful, little Mew." The poison positive Trainer informed the psychic as she steadied the girl, "You'll do yourself an injury that way." Venom paused as she took in Oracle's state properly. The bags under her eyes spoke of one too many long nights and far too little sleep. "What's happened?"

Mars scowled as she beheld the scene but attempted to keep her mind clear of anything resembling the disdain she truly had for her freaks, well aware she was bad at it. While Oracle didn't scan the minds of those she considered friends, she'd been too cautious around the psychic girl for too long not to try.

"We, Snow and I, we've worked out who wiped the computers and we've managed to recover some of the lost data too!" Oracle practically bounced on the spot

"Details, girl." Mars's snapping tone caused the thirteen year old to flinch but Oracle managed to stand her ground even as she lost her composure when Mars's mind was suddenly filled with images and thoughts, some of which were along the lines of 'should never have offered up that dragon for such a young, naive brat'. "Oracle!"

The psychic, who hadn't slept enough over the last week or so to watch what she was doing with her powers properly snapped herself back to attention, not wanting to believe what she thought she had just seen and heard in her leader's head. Surely the one who had orchestrated her rescue from the cells of Team Cypher wouldn't think that...

"Nanoha Miko, Mercury's little Bug. The one we thought was one of us." Oracle explained, "She put a virus in the system that tried to delete everything, but it didn't quite get everything."

"I'll pass this one to Cyrus." Mars finally started to smile, "In the mean time, I'm issuing the order I know some of you have been waiting for. You are all ordered to use ANY means possible to acquire the Master Ball or its location. Do pass that on to those who aren't here. Oh and Venom, A.C.?" Both PKNEs shook slightly at her tone. "Don't screw up."

**LINE_RECOGNITION_HAS_GONE_AGAIN**

Ryou was doing his homework when his phone rang.

The ring tone was distinctive enough to have him frowning. He wasn't expecting a phone call from Jamie or Mai for another few hours, so either they had reached the city earlier than they had expected and settled in already, something Ryou doubted, or something had gone wrong.

Not that he had a say in any of it. The moment he had recognised the ringtone he had lost control of his body to his dark half, who was in the process of picking up the mobile phone, which clearly stated 'Jamie' on its caller ID and answering.

"Bakura." The Tomb Robber answered, not bothering pretending he was his light half. He didn't have to with Jamie, she knew the truth and he didn't like playing that game unless he really had to.

"Bakura, its Mai."

Ryou felt Bakura stop dead at the voice that emanated from the phone. It wasn't the Pokémon Trainer he'd expected it to be and the panic and misery in the speaker's voice was enough to have the Tomb Robber sending up a silent prayer to the gods. One that went along the lines of 'please don't take someone else away from me.'

"What do you want?" Bakura's voice showed none of the fear that Ryou could sense coursing through him.

"Bakura... we got caught. Jamie's..."

"Where are you?" Bakura's tone didn't surprise Ryou and the teenager resigned himself to losing a considerable amount of time in the near future. Not that he minded too much. The Tomb Robber who stole his body regularly had been surprisingly reasonable since he'd befriended Jamie, though not completely and not to anyone besides Ryou and Jamie, with the occasional semi-polite word to Mai or Joey. If something had happened to his friend, it was only right that he'd want to go and be there for her.

Mai gave him the co-ordinates quickly, shooing away some guy named Valon who'd apparently helped her get Jamie to the Pokémon Centre in the Rended town, but it was her last words that really struck home with the Thief King.

"Please hurry."

With that she cut the call, leaving the Thief King staring at the phone for a few moments before Ryou was treated to around five minutes of the foulest language he had ever heard, in more languages than he had thought it was possible to know. His dark half spent those five minutes torn between terror, rage and grief as he packed a bag and made sure that he had everything he needed.

It was only when Bakura couldn't find the house keys and Ryou offered up their location, not entirely sure it was a good idea but knowing that if he didn't Bakura would leave the door unlocked and all his stuff would go walkabouts, that the Thief King actually realised that his 'landlord' had heard and felt all of that.

Shockingly Bakura's only response to Ryou seeing his moment of weakness was to shove all of his emotions behind a barrier Ryou couldn't and didn't want to attempt to breech and informed him that if he wanted any chance of getting his body back in the next few days, he would sit down, shut up and let Bakura get them to the Canalave Rend without fighting him.

Ryou wisely followed orders.

**LINE_RECOGNITION_HAS_GONE_AGAIN**

It hadn't been hard for Spectre to find Mutou when the teen had failed to show up for work. All he'd had to do was follow the strange occurrences and the formation of a giant, glowing blue pyramid in the almost completed White Lightning Stadium in Competitor's Village.

The huge stadium, which had been created by the CEO of Kaiba Corp in conjunction with his little brother and the last Champion to be put in the records, Jamelia Francis, was planned to be used for big Duel Monsters tournaments and the foundation of the Pokémon League of Japan. Of course the Japanese League was going to be set up with two divisions, the one for those with real Pokémon and those who used the only just released Holoballs in conjunction with their versions of Pocket Monsters, the recently released games related to the Pokémon.

That wasn't the important thing right now though. The important part was that Mutou and Kaiba were battling in what appeared to have gone from a Duel Monster's match to a life or death battle, if the desperation and collapse of the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle was anything to go by.

Spectre grimaced as he watched the match from a safe distance. He'd seen the younger Kaiba brother arrive with Wheeler only for the blonde to collapse almost the moment he'd gotten in sight of the giant eye that took up the greater majority of one side of the pyramid. There was something linked to the glowing shape that stole souls he could sense it and while he was slightly relieved that, if the spirit lost, he wouldn't have to fight him to check Mutou's supply of Pokeballs, he didn't like the idea of the spirit, who from what he could see was little more than the one who bailed Mutou out of tough situations getting killed here.

Still he'd watched as the duel had continued, as Kaiba had been tossed aside by the force that had been in control of the duel the entire time and as the spirit of the Puzzle had managed to somehow bring himself back from the brink of death to win his freedom. He'd even watched as Mutou and the spirit of the Puzzle had worked together to summon forth Kaiba's most powerful duel monster in order to destroy the giant fire breathing canine that their attacker had become upon his defeat.

After watching them do that, he decided if Mutou and his 'friend' could come close to the brink of death and still summon a monster powerful enough to destroy a monster that would have quiet easily wiped out the whole surrounding area, then he didn't fancy his chances in a head on assault.

As such he let Mutou stumble away, supported by Wheeler, heading for the limo that would take them back to their places of residence. He'd just have to come up with another plan to deal with the problem.

**LINE_RECOGNITION_HAS_GONE_AGAIN**

Joey sighed as he leaned across the gap between desks to poke Yugi awake again.

He had wondered if Yugi coming to school today was a good idea when he'd seen how much trouble Gramps had had getting Yugi out the door this morning, but his friend had insisted that he was fine and he couldn't really afford to take more time off of school anyway.

Not that it mattered for much longer. School was nearly over and Yugi wasn't due in the Day Care today, so the moment they finished with the humdrum of their education the teen could go home and crash out. He looked like he needed it. After last night Joey wasn't surprised in the slightest.

The bell going woke Yugi up before Joey could and the blonde was treated to the sight of his friend jumping a bloody mile and falling out of his chair, causing the rest of the class to laugh at him.

"Go home, Yuge." Joey sniggered as Tea helped Yugi to his feet.

"I'm going, I'm going." Yugi sighed, causing Tea to start scolding him for even thinking about doing anything besides resting. "No wait. I have to find that ghost first."

Joey grimaced. Yugi could see the ghost Pokémon without anything like Foresight active, whereas he couldn't. This had meant that he'd missed what had apparently been some amusing antics as a ghost Pokémon spent the day teasing Yugi and standing behind their teacher pulling silly faces. "Are you sure you're alright to hunt it down today?" He asked as they headed for the shoe lockers.

"It might have moved on by tomorrow. It certainly wasn't here yesterday." Yugi shrugged, "I'll be fine. I have Yami, remember?"

He had a point. If anyone could prevent anything happening to Yugi, it was the spirit of the Pharaoh living inside the Millennium Puzzle.

"Still..." Tristan started as he pulled his trainers on seconds behind Yugi who attempted to do up his shoelace only to spot the ghost Pokémon reaching through a nearby locker. Yugi grabbed for its hand and the purple, semi-transparent Pokémon legged it.

"See you later." Yugi snatched his Pokeballs out of his backpack and darted after it.

"Yuge!" The teen was gone before Joey could register his complaint.

Tea shook her head as she led the remaining two guys outside, "I need to get myself a Pokémon, I could help you both out then."

"There's a few you might like in the Day Care at the moment." Joey replied thoughtfully, having already looked over the Pokémon with Tristan, thinking about getting partners for his other friends, just in case Galactic tried anything. "Have you ever seen a Kirlia?"

"No." Tea shook her head.

"Here." Joey pulled the most expensive piece of equipment he owned out of his back pocket, his Centre Dex. It was basically this world's version of the Pokedex, handed out solely to the Day Care Centre workers to allow them to work with the Pokémon and get any information they needed quickly and efficiently. Quickly skimming through the pages and grimacing when he had to activate the search function to find the Pokémon in question.

He handed the Centre Dex over to Tea once he'd called up Kirlia's image. He knew the one in the centre quite well. She was a shy little thing, but she moved like she was dancing the whole time and could have a temper when she was pushed or prodded. She'd suit Tea perfectly.

"She looks..." Tea broke off as flames erupted in front of them, causing hundreds of school children to scream as they turned and fled for the back entrance. Tea, Joey and Tristan moved to go with them but a wall of ice cut the trio off before they could move.

"Wheeler." Joey turned to face the speaker as Tristan pulled Tea behind him. There was a pair of Trainers stood before them. Both were in Galactic uniforms; though one was in red and one in an icy blue not unlike Jamie's hair. The red clothed one, the one speaking, was a tall male, who was broad shouldered and had red hair and brown eyes. The icy blue clothed one on the other hand was a delicate woman, who looked like she'd fit in better in one of Tea's dance classes, with long white hair and cold blue eyes. "I hear you have something of ours."

Joey snatched his Centre Dex back from Tea and scanned the two Pokémon with them, grimacing as the data for Magmortar came up. It certainly wouldn't be an easy Pokémon to fight. The woman's Mamoswine was less of an issue, he trusted Iblis to be able to deal with the ice type Pokémon. Reaching for the Pokeballs on his belt, he picked the two he knew would get him through this.

"Iblis! Kaida!" He shouted, tossing the balls into the air, "I choose you!"

**LINE_RECOGNITION_HAS_GONE_AGAIN**

'_I still think you should leave it.'_ Yami informed Yugi as he followed his hikari, who had taken spirit form, through the changing rooms in pursuit of the ghost Pokémon that had had been teasing them all day.

"_It's not from the Day Care, Yami."_ Yugi sent back, _"So we have to make contact with it and try and get it to go there so it can be checked over. It's part of our contract, remember?"_

'_I know, I know. Doesn't mean I don't think this is a bad idea.'_ Yami grouched back as his hikari ghosted through a set of benches. Most of his bad mood was exhaustion. He was fully aware that neither of them had fully recovered from the recent Shadow Game against Anubis that had nearly claimed both their lives. It was why he wasn't best pleased that his hikari had gone ghost chasing.

However Yugi was right, they did have a duty to make sure that the ghost Pokémon that had been bothering them all day was alright and check to see if it had a Trainer, he just wished that his hikari would be a bit more careful.

"_Its fine, Yami. I'll just rest after this."_ Yugi waved his concern off,_ "Besides, I think we're catching up to it. I thought I spotted going this way."_

'_Yugi will you _please_ stay where I can see you?' _Yami growled at his hikari as the teen darted through the wall into the gym.

"_Sorry, sorry, but it's getting... ahhh!"_ Yugi's cry of pain coincided with an explosion of some kind. Yami crumpled to his knees in pain as Yugi's agony spiked across the link, gasping for breath for a moment as a pained whimper crossed the link.

Even as the Pharaoh staggered to his feet he reached across the link, trying to pull Yugi into his Soul Room, or draw some of the pain off or something. He stumbled as something within his mind flashed bright red, an evil eye blinked at him in his mind's eye and the pull he was using on Yugi's spirit was harshly snapped, sending his soul reeling.

A tortured scream from his precious light snapped Yami's mind back into harsh focus. Someone was hurting_**Yugi**_. They _**would**_ pay.

Pushing past the pain, the Pharaoh burst through the door to find his light was the prisoner of a huge, semi transparent greyish brown Pokémon, which had yellow markings and what looked like a mouth on its stomach. The Pokémon, who was easily two foot taller than Yugi, had its meaty hand wrapped around Yugi's throat and had lifted the boy's spirit form off of the ground.

Not normally a problem, as in that form Yugi didn't need to breathe and had learned to float a long time ago, Yami realised as Yugi struggled to pull himself free that his light was not only unable to return to his Soul Room to avoid the danger, but couldn't even ghost himself out of the creature's grip.

"Let him..." Yami's demand was drowned out as electricity coursed down the Pokémon's arm and played across Yugi, causing the boy to screech as the lightning playing across his form burnt his very soul.

Yami hit the floor, an echoing cry of his own escaping his lips as his hikari's attempts to hold back the pain gave out and Yami was subjected to everything Yugi was going through.

"Tell me, Mutou!" As the torment died down, Yami heard someone speaking. A human. "Where is the Master Ball?"

When Yugi's voice didn't reply, Yami stumbled to his feet again, barely able to stand with the pain he could feel coursing down the link, and got a good look at the speaker.

A tall, lanky black haired boy with eyes as red as his own and a very pale complexion, wearing a black uniform with Team Galactic's symbol on was glaring at Yugi who was hung limply in the Pokémon's grasp.

Galactic. Yugi's assailant was from Galactic.

The Puzzle glowed as Yami started weaving a Shadow Game that would punish the one who dared torture his light for information.

Then something cold swept through him, tearing at his own soul as it passed and Yami got a glimpse of ghostly glowing claws before the Puzzle shattered and his soul went with it.

The last thing he heard was Yugi's terrified scream, _"Yami!"_

**LINE_RECOGNITION_HAS_GONE_AGAIN**

**Author Note: Oh dear…**

**Sooo... Long time no update. When my PC went it took my entire plan for Sheer Cold and Sacred Fire with it. So this is my official note on this fic, please note that I am posting the first chapter of 'Relic Song' at the same time as the last chapters of both pre-mentioned fics. That is the next story in the series. You're not missing anything with me ending Sheer Cold and Sacred Fire early, it was going to be all original stuff, including generic Pokémon journeys and generic OC villains that were after the Puzzle/Yugi's magic/soul/underwear for some generic reason. **

**Editor's Note: JOEY! THERE IS NO 'E' IN LIGHTNING! (Sorry, had to get that out of my system).**


End file.
